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Randolph Bedford
George Randolph Bedford (27 June 1868 – 7 July 1941) was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, and Queensland state politician. Life Youth Bedford was born in Camperdown, Sydney, the son of Alfred Bedford, who during 1859 migrated from Yorkshire, England and obtained work as a house painter. Educated at the Newtown state school. At 14 he was working with a Sydney solicitors firm as office-boy. At 16 years of age he was working in the western district of New South Wales, shooting rabbits. He carried copies of Carlyle's French Revolution, Shakespeare and the Bible. He worked for a year as a clerk in Hay and in Wagga Wagga joined up with a repertory company run by Edmund Duggan. Literary career Bedford had a short story accepted by The Bulletin in 1886, the first of many contributions. In 1888 he worked for a time on the Argus (Broken Hill, NSW), and in 1889 on The Age, Melbourne for about two years. Freelancing followed, verse, short stories and sketches, written while travelling in Australia searching for payable mining fields. From 1901 to 1904 Bedford was in Europe and wrote a series of travel sketches. In 1916 these were collected and published under the title of Explorations in Civilization. His first novel, True Eyes and the Whirlwind, appeared in London in 1903, and his Snare of Strength was published two years later. Three short novels appeared afterwards in the Bookstall series, Billy Pagan, Mining Engineer (1911), The Silver Star (1917) and Aladdin and the Boss Cockie (1919), the latter also adapted into a play in four acts. He had also made a collection of his Bulletin verse in 1904, however the unbound sheets were all burned during a fire at the printers, except about six copies which were bound without title-page and apparently given to friends. A few years before his death, Bedford stated that he did not regret the fire as some of the verses included "could only be excused on account of his extreme youth at the time of writing". He was then preparing a selection of his verse for the press which, however, was not published. Other short stories included: Fourteen Fathoms by Quetta Rock and The Language of Animals. With Australian authors Henry Lawson and Victor Daley et al., he was a member of the elite Dawn and Dusk Club. Political career In 1917 Bedford entered the Queensland Legislative Council, on a platform to secure its abolition (which occurred in 1922). In 1923 he was elected as Labor candidate to the Legislative Assembly for Warrego, a seat which he held until his resignation in 1937 to contest the Maranoa seat for the Federal House of Representatives. He was defeated, but was again elected to his old seat in the Legislative Assembly. He had an impatient streak and was not elected to cabinet. Publications Poetry *''Poems''. Melbourne: Troedel Print, 1904. x Novels *''True Eyes and the Whirlwind''. London: Duckworth, 1903. w *''The Snare of Strength. London: Heinemann, 1905. w *''Sops of Wine (1909) *''Billy Pagan, Mining Engineer''. Sydney: NSW Bookstall, 1911; w **Shelburne, ON: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2006. w *''The Mates of Torres'' (1911) *''The Lady of the Pickup'' (1911) *''The Silver Star''. Sydney: NSW Bookstall, 1917. w *''Aladdin and the Boss Cockie''. Sydney: NSW Bookstall, 1919. w Non-fiction *''New South Wales''. Melbourne: The Clarion, 1901. w *''Queensland: South, central, tropical''. Melbourne: The Clarion, 1901. w *''Queensland: The winter paradise of Australasia: The wonders of the nor'-east''. Queensland: Railway Department, 1906. w *''Explorations in Civilization''. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1910. w *''The Great Barrier Reef'' (with photos by E.F. Pollock & Frank Hurley). Sydney: Art in Australia, 1928. w *''Inland Australia: A series of photographs''. Sydney: Art in Australia, 1928. w *''Naught to Thirty-Three'' (autobiography). Sydney: Currawong, 1944; Carleton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1976. w Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Randolph Bedford, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 26, 2015. See also * List of Australian poets References * Additional sources ;listed by the Dictionary of Australian Biography *''The Courier-Mail'', Brisbane, 8 July 1941; The Bulletin, 16 July 1941; The Worker, Brisbane, 8 July 1941; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; Nettie Palmer, Modern Australian Literature; See also, Randolph Bedford, Naught to Thirty-three. ;listed by the Australian Dictionary of Biography *G. Blainey, Mines in the Spinifex (Syd, 1960); C. Lack (ed), Three Decades of Queensland Political History, 1929-1960 (Brisb, 1962); N. Lindsay, Bohemians of the Bulletin (Syd, 1965); L. A. Lindsay, Comedy of Life (Syd, 1967); R. Lindsay, Model Wife (Syd, 1967); Overland, no 26, 1963; Bulletin, 12 Feb 1894, 4 Jan 1912; Australasian (Melbourne), 30 Oct 1920; Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 1924, 26 Oct 1929, 18 Nov 1933, 9 Feb, 28 July 1934, 6 Feb, 30, 31 May 1935; Bedford papers (State Library of Queensland); Alfred Deakin papers (National Library of Australia); A1 and A3 series lists (National Archives of Australia). Notes External links ;Poems *"My Epitaph" * Randolph Bedford (-) in the Australian Poetry Library (1 poem, "The Bellbird Rung Her Home") ;Books *Works by Randolph Bedford at AustLit ;About *Randolph Bedford in the Dictionary of Australian Biography * Bedford, George Randolph (1868–1941) in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. * "Randolph Bedford. Miner-Writer-Politician", Matilda. *Bedford, Randolph (186801941) at Social Networks & Archival Context *"A Gum-Tree Exile: Randolph Bedford in England and Italy", Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 10:1 (January 2013) Category:1868 births Category:1941 deaths Category:Australian novelists Category:Australian poets Category:Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Category:Members of the Queensland Legislative Council Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Australian journalists